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April 30, 2006

The state of Bangladesh politics has degraded to the bottom pit. Political intolerance and illogical acrimony between two major parties have created much disturbance in the country. The rampant corruption of many leaders, MPs and ministers are changing the parity between the rich, middle class and poor and spreading corruption to all levels. The nexus between the police and the criminals under the umbrella of the corrupt leaders has deteriorated the law and order situation. I have written about it many times (1, 2, 3, 4). In my opinion we should vote for competent leaders in the coming election and not choose the same old corrupt faces irrespective of their party mandates.

And its time to do something about it. Naima, a Bangladeshi student living in NY has started something moving. The 'Change Bangladesh' initiative is being launched to brainstorm expatriate Bangladeshi advocacy in the 'clean-competent candidate for election' movement pioneered by Dr Yunus’s March 20 speech. The goal is to simply encourage effective leadership for Bangladesh. Among other things 'Change Bangladesh' is in the process of creating a 'how to' guide for voters and a tool using which all Bangladeshis connected to the web will be able to check up on certain aspects of a running candidate for national or local elections. This is modeled after project vote smart in the United States. They are working in a mentor capacity and idea exchange. They have no financial or any other input except logistics. The five components are :